Helga sat on her couch dumbfounded. What happened last night? And whatever did happen, did she just ruin it?
"Helga! Qué haces? Ir tras èl! Chorra!" Julían said. Helga what are you doing? Go after him! Stupid.
Helga just rolled her eyes and glared at Julían. "I took French, I have zero clue what you're saying. You wanna say it again in English?"
"I said to go after him! I also called you stupid," Julían said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Helga G. Pataki is not stupid. I just haven't made up my mind what i'm going to do," Helga said. She really didn't have any idea of what to do. It seemed as if Arnold had finally her feelings. But what if that wasn't really what happened? What if she went after him and he rejected her, or worse, said he just did that in the "heat of the moment?" She didn't think she could go through that again. But if he did have feelings for her, why now? Why at all?
"Clearly you are, because you have feelings for him and he has feelings for you. El burro sabe mas que tu," Julían said. He stood up suddenly and walked to the door. "You can sit here all you want, but doing that will not change the situation you are in. You'll still be alone. Why would you want to waste time being alone when you could be with someone who feels just as deeply as you do? Do what you want, but I'm going to practice. See y'all." Julían closed the door behind him.
Helga and Phoebe stared at the door. Helga had been out of the loop for far too long. She wanted answers. Not knowing was beginning to piss her off. Suddenly Phoebe cleared her throat, bringing Helga out of her thoughts.
"If I may add my input, I think you should at least talk to Arnold. You don't have to confess anything. I think it would be best just to get answers," Phoebe said.
Suddenly Helga remembered what Phoebe said earlier. Gerald always said Arnold should just tell you. "What did Gerald say Arnold needed to tell me?" Helga said, raising her eyebrow.
Phoebe's eyes went wide. "Uh...well its not really my place to tell you. And I think it would be better coming from Arnold anyway," Phoebe said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck.
"You and tall hair boy getting serious now?" Helga asked, knowing it would make Phoebe blush. Phoebe and Gerald had been dating for a few years now. They went to college on opposite sides of the country for undergrad, but when Gerald moved to Boston for a job opportunity, Phoebe was overjoyed when he asked her to lunch. Helga was so happy for Phoebe, but she was also envious. Phoebe and Gerald seemed to have the perfect relationship. They put so much trust in each other, and though they didn't see each other as much as they would like to with Gerald's job and Phoebe's residency, when they got together it was like they never were apart.
Phoebe quickly brushed off her embarrassment. "Yes, we are getting pretty serious. And I want you to be happy too. Now get over your fears and go right now!" Phoebe said, putting her hands on her hips. Helga chuckled a little. She knew Phoebe was trying to be assertive, but she was so small and quiet she didn't come off nearly as intimidating as she thought she did.
But Helga through up her hands in defeat. "Okay, okay, it seems my mind has been made up for me. I'll go." She got up and headed towards the door.
But then the shower turned off. Helga looked over her shoulder at her bedroom door.
Arnolds POV
I walked down the street away from Helga's apartment. I felt so many emotions at once, I couldn't pinpoint exactly how I felt. Anger? Disappointment? I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
I thought back to undergrad. Helga and I both somehow managed to get into Northeastern. She studied English and I was a Biochemistry major, so we didn't see each other much except for passing her occasionally on campus and saying a polite hello in which she glared at me in response.
That was until the first day of my last semester of undergrad. I had one general education class left in order to graduate, which meant I was stuck in mythology. I walked down the aisle of the auditorium and I spotted Helga sitting in a seat with her head in her hand, looking extremely bored.
I sat down next to her. She didn't take any notice of me and continued to face forward. "Hello Helga," I said, smiling at her.
Helga's head snapped up to look at me, wide eyed. "A-Arnold? I-I mean what are you doing in this class football-head?" She asked.
"Oh, probably the same as you, I needed a gen-ed and the reviews on rate my professor said this class was an easy A," I said smiling down at her. The professor walked in and turned dimmed the lights. He pulled up a powerpoint and began the lecture about the Theogony.
I had already read the Theogony before the class started, I wanted to get a jump ahead in this class so I wouldn't fall behind in any of my major classes. So I took the time to look at Helga. Though I had seen her on campus a few times I never really got a chance to really look at her. She was wearing jeans and white converse and a plain pink t-shirt. She had her hair down in loose waves around her face and wore tiny gold bow studs in her ears. Her body seemed muscular but lean, like she ran a lot. Her eyebrows were still thick, but were arched instead of the unibrow they used to be. Helga definitely had changed.
She suddenly turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. "What?" She whispered harshly. I blushed and turned away. "Nothing," I said. I didn't realize how long I had been looking at her.
I forced myself to pay attention for the rest of the lecture, not wanting to risk looking at her again. When the lecture was over, she quickly stood up and put her laptop in her bookbag, but I stopped her. "Do you want to study together? I think we could really help each other in this class," I said.
Helga groaned. "Ugh, if thats what you want football-head, sure i'll study with you. But no funny business!" She said, pointing her finger at my chest. At least some things didn't change.
I rolled my eyes. "Ok no funny business Helga. I promise." We exchanged numbers and walked away from each other.
The semester went by relatively smoothly, at least as smooth as it can go when Helga is involved. The first few times we met to study she was pushy and mean. She wouldn't even sit by me in class for a few weeks. But after a while the tension started to melt and she started to be more comfortable around me. We would joke about the boring lecture and how the professors mustache always seemed to have food in it. We would argue over the interpretation of the reading and compete over who would get the best grades on exams.
One night we were sitting in the library studying for our final. Our professor decided to schedule our exam on the very last day of finals week, so basically nobody was on campus anymore. Helga and I had already taken all of our exams and only had Mythology left.
The library was dark and quiet, with the lamp on our desk illuminating the small area with a dim glow. I looked up at Helga, who was writing a practice essay from the prompt our professor posted online. Her eyebrows were furrowed together and her lips were pressed into a thin line. I smiled at the sight. I hadn't seen Helga in two weeks as we studied for our own separate exams. It was nice to see her again.
"Unless staring at me is somehow going to give you the answers to tomorrows exam, I suggest you stop," Helga said in a insulting yet playful tone. She put her usual purple pen down and looked up at me. Her blue eyes seemed clear as day even in the badly lit library.
"Want to take a break? We've been studying for hours and I think my butt has fused with this chair," I joked. She smiled at the joke, but then returned to look at her paper. "No, I really need to ace this final. If I get an A in this class I finish the semester on the chancellor's list."
"Weren't you on the chancellor's list last semester? C'mon Helga, my brain is mush. Please?" I asked. I knew the course content backwards and forwards. If I had to read one more thing about how Zeus raped somebody I thought I was going to lose it.
Helga put her pen down again and glared at me. "Fine football-head. But if we fail this final its on you!"She said. I smiled at her, happy she agreed with me so easily instead of fighting with me like she usually did.
"I don't think we will, but pack up your stuff," I said, shoving my laptop into my bookbag. She raised an eyebrow at me.
"Why? Where are we going?" She asked, though she was already putting her stuff into her backpack. "You'll see,"I said.
Helga followed me as we exited the library. We walked a little ways in campus before I stopped in front of a weeping willow tree. Helga put her hands on her hips.
"A tree. You made me leave the library to come to a stupid tree," She said glaring at me.
"Come on Helga, I love this tree. Nobody can see you inside it but you can see them. Its beautiful," I said, walking under the leaves.
"Oh no, i'm not going under that stupid tree," Helga said, turning her nose in the air. But I grabbed her hand.
"I can't believe i'm sitting under this stupid tree," Helga said, swinging her legs as she sat on a branch.
"Its beautiful up here," I said, looking up at the stars I could see through the leaves.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," She said, looking up at the stars as well.
I looked at her with a smirk. "What did I just hear? Helga G. Pataki admitting I was right? Has the world ended?" I asked laughing.
Helga rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well don't get used to it, bucko," She stated simply. I looked at her eyes. The sparkle she had in her eyes made me smile. I loved looking into them. Wait what? I didn't love anything about Helga G. Pataki. She was my bully. She was mean spirited. She was manipulative. She had no moral conscious whatsoever, her words, not mine.
Though I knew that none of that was true. I continued to stare at her, which made her uncomfortable and she looked down at the ground below her. I moved my hand towards hers and slowly put mine on top of hers. Her head snapped up and looked at me. She looked like she was pondering something, but then eventually she said something I really didn't want to hear.
"We should get back to studying," Helga said, and jumped down from the branch onto the ground. I watched as she picked up her bookbag and I sighed, jumping down from the tree.
We studied quietly to ourselves the rest of the night and took the final the next day. When I got my results a few hours later I texted her to tell her I got an A. She later replied that she got an A+.
I never heard from her again.
I went onto Boston University to get a graduate degree in pharmacology, where I ran into Phoebe who was in the medical school there. I tried to get information on Helga from her when I saw her from time to time, but she never said anything other than how she was doing. When Gerald moved back and started dating Phoebe I even tried to get information out of him. I knew that Helga and Phoebe were roommates and Gerald went over to their apartment often. But whenever I asked he just said she wasn't there.
I felt so confused, by my feelings, by Helga shutting me out. But running into her at the latin club gave me a second chance to make things right again. She looked so beautiful when I saw her dancing with Julían, even if she was extremely clumsy. I went over to dance with her and as soon as she took my hand and I felt the electricity throughout my body from her touch that that night was going to be my chance. Or so I thought it was.
Suddenly I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around and came face to face with Helga.
Helga.
A/N. Thanks so much for reading! I have been trying to update more often but since I am a biochem major like Arnold in this story I am extremely busy. I literally wrote this story while doing a toxicology at the same time so I apologize for all the grammar and/or spelling mistakes. Unlike toxicology no one is actually grading this. Anyway, if someone could tell me how to make the little line breaks in that some authors have in between parts of a chapter that would be great. I used underscores in this chapter but i'm not sure thats how you do it. I'm still new to this site and trying to figure things out, and i'm extremely terrible with technology. It took like 30 minutes just to figure out how to add another chapter.
Thanks!
American Airlines
(I do not own American Airlines, by the way. I just love to travel and they're my go to airline).
